Alexandr Korol

And it truly does come in different levels. It’s all quite complex when you try to describe it, because there are people who go through cycles — when their heart opens, their faith appears, and they become virtuous. Then suddenly — bam — the heart closes, and they turn into little devils. Then they go back to normal again. There are people, you see, whose faith appears and disappears altogether. Then there are those who always have faith, but it fluctuates — sometimes it’s weaker, sometimes stronger. Like a light that flares up and dims, flares up and dims. It depends on various things — certain events or circumstances might occur that dampen that faith, like a flame that simply doesn’t burn as brightly. And then maybe someone writes to me saying they loved my book — especially if that person is someone significant in literature or publishing — then naturally, my faith flares up again, gets recharged. My chest begins to glow, my hands too. I physically feel that faith. Faith and confidence. But see, there’s faith in a loved one, faith in yourself, and faith in God — these are all different things. They have things in common but are also distinct. There are many variations of it, but it’s all still faith — just experienced differently depending on the level or the world you’re in.

Question: When you arrived in Karelia, did you still perceive those whom you call “they” in the plural form, as you did before Karelia? Or in Karelia, did it begin to feel like something singular or completely different?

No, still “they.” Still “they.” In the same kind of quantity, still “they,” and still “they” are different. And I continued to interact with different ones among “them.” But again, you see, maybe this is all just a play of my imagination. Let’s put it this way: I’m a very sensitive person. As a child, I could listen to a foreign music track, not knowing its translation or seeing the video, not even knowing the name — just listening to the track. And then I’d suddenly start dressing the same way as the musicians, or even feel like going to the city, the place, the neighborhood where that track was recorded. Or even start describing something that I wanted to express under the influence of that track, and then it would turn out, when I looked up the translation, that the song was actually about that very thing. Amazing. That’s why I’ve never really been interested in what something is called, or what someone might say about someone or something, because I